read/respond

I just read the article Class Warfare or Human Rights? published in the latest edition of the PeaceWorker. The author, Robert Beal, talks about overclass warfare (my understanding - the superrich basically changing whatever they want to get more for themselves), mass apathy, and something he calls Full Livelihood. He doesn't define the common understanding of full livelihood but he does give an idealized version and here's some of what he lists:

spiritual trascendence/self-actualization
income safety net
education-on-demand
healthcare-on-demand
time
personal safety
civic safety
clean water, earth air

Although much of the article was a bit academic I liked the section on Full Livelihood. What I find interesting is the fundamental value shift that needs to happen before Americans, in general, begin to value the things he's listed. Although many many people pay at least nominal lip service to the ideas of self actualization, clean air, sustainable lifestyles, and renewable energy, most people I talk to are pretty focused on making enough money to pay their bills and have a little left over. Even though many of these people are paying their bills and otherwise 'making it', they don't feel that way.

What I see in Mr. Beal's list is a shift in focus from the materialist to the spiritualist. A basic priority shift in which people begin to realize that having more things doesn't make you feel any happier or any more secure. I believe this shift is beginning as more and more people are beginning to feel stirrings of discontent and unhappiness. Many people I speak with talk about finding themselves, finding meaning, having a purpose. This is something that the materialist American dream doesn't allow for. When people define their worth by the number and/or size of physical objects they possess, they lose the power of self definition. They look to others to judge their worth, based on a variety of external variables.

Relinquishing our internal power to external sources is never successful. People work harder and harder and are more and more unhappy. They have less and less of the things they say they value - time, love, relationships, etc. The problem is that most people have bought into the societal idea that more things make you a more perfect person. What we're beginning to realize is that the American dream *only* looks at the material world - it doesn't take into consideration the human need for meaning and purpose. It defines us as what we have, not who we are.